In the aircraft industry, fluid containers, such as oil tanks, for the engine systems are increasingly required to have complex shapes while also being lightweight. Typical approaches for oil tank structures today include using welded sheet metal structures, metal castings or a hybrid of both combined. However, as the scale of the tanks grow for larger engines and the required geometries for packaging the tanks become more creative, there is an increasing need for new design techniques.
Typical construction materials have included aluminum, which is lightweight, and thin-walled stainless steel, which can still offer lower weight along with greater strength. However, costs for tooling and manufacturing steps needed when working with such materials increase dramatically as the needed shapes become more complex. Composite materials have been tried and while they may offer advantages over metals for achieving more complex shapes, fire resilience of composites is poor.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved design technique for fluid containers offering both high structural strength and fire resilience.